Moskal[a] is a designation used for the residents of theGrand Duchy of Moscow from the 12th to the 15th centuries.[1]
It is now sometimes used inBelarus,Ukraine, andPoland, but also inRomania, as anethnic slur forRussians.[2][3][4] The term is generally considered to be derogatory or condescending and reciprocal to the Russian termkhokhol for Ukrainians.[5] Another ethnic slur for Russians iskacap in Polish, orкацап (katsap) in Ukrainian.
Initially, as early as the 12th century,moskal referred to the residents of Muscovy, the word literally translating as "Muscovite" (differentiating the residents of the Grand Duchy of Moscow from otherEast Slavs such as people fromWhite Ruthenia (Belarusians),Red Ruthenia (Ukrainians), and others). With time, the word became anarchaism in all theEast Slavic languages, and survived only as a family name in each of those languages—see below.[6]
The negative connotation in Ukraine came in around the late 18th-early 19th centuries in the form of an ethnic slur labelling all Russians. At that time, since the 1654Pereiaslav Agreement of Cossacks with Moscow the majority of Russians in Ukrainian lands were soldiers of theImperial Russian Army (and in fact at that time the term "moskal" was synonymous with the word "soldier"), as well as Russian bureaucrats, Russian nobles that were granted estates there, and merchants. All these categories were disliked by the locals.[7]
The "Moskal" is astock character of the traditional Ukrainian puppet theatre form,vertep.[8][9]
It also gave rise to a number of East Slavic family names:Moskal,Moskalyov,Moskalenko,Moskalik,Moskalyuk, Moskalchuk, Moskalyonok, Moskalenkov.
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